Although matters appear to be smoothed over between Rutgers and the Naval Academy, the incident left some students scratching their heads.

"At every game I've ever been to, there are people that start those chants," Rutgers junior Jenny K. said. "It was just another team that works when you put it in a chant, and I don't think it was meant to be directed specifically at people who might go overseas for us."

Jenny K. said such offensive practices were not specific only to Rutgers.

"My dad's a professor at Bates College in Maine, and the same stuff happens there. I mean, it's college," she said.

Rutgers junior John C. said the heckling is not uncommon and was not targeted at Navy specifically. He also attributed some of the fans' behavior to alcohol.

"It's the student section where it seems like more than 80 percent of the people there are under the influence. ... Why should that offend anyone?" John C. said. "It's a football game, it wasn't the U.S. soldiers versus the Rutgers football team. They're just another college at that point."

After reading the column, Jenny K. was not surprised that it brought controversy to light, but hoped that students would not read too deeply into the offensive chanting.

"Putting Rutgers in the title seems like a good way to get people to read your stuff. ... People root for us now," she said. Navy "can be offended by the language used, but they shouldn't take it personally. It's a chant where each game, students just insert the name of the other team. Should the referees be offended after they make a call and they hear the usual chant 'Bulls---?'"

John C. also said people should consider the time and place of the incident before judging Rutgers fans too harshly.

"It's a football game in the student section," John C. said. "You're not going to curse and yell like that at a Rutgers soccer game where students sit with adults and their high school-age, or younger, kids."

Rutgers sophomore Erin B. said she was aware of some fans getting carried away with their chanting.

"I can understand where [the column] comes from," Erin B. said. Rutgers "students were pretty aggressive. ... There was a guy in Navy apparel, head to toe, standing with friends in our student section and people were basically trying to start fights with him all night. But it's all just a mob mentality."

Uh, are you kidding me?! The outraged response by college football fans across American left some Rutgers students "scratching their heads?!" Are they really that clueless?!

So let me see if I get this straight -- the one female student thinks it's okay because, basically, "Hey, we do it to everybody." Oh, well, shit, my - and others - bad for bringing it up. I mean, if you're kind enough to tell everybody to fuck off, shame on anybody for being offended. I mean, it's not like you single anybody out with your asinine behavior. Then she continues to excuse the conduct by her fellow Rutgers students by invoking the "it's college" excuse. How pathetic.

Then the next Rutgers rocket scientist excuses the behavior by saying since most of the students are drunk, people shouldn't be offended. Oh, is that how that works, Einstein? I see. Man, they should put you on the university brochures with that kind of logic. What a credit to your school.

Finally, is the last student interviewed in the story really saying it's okay for fans to try to beat up a spectator wearing the other team's colors because "mob mentality" has taken over amongst the otherwise rational individuals?

(Long pause to shake my head in disbelief. Still shaking. Keep going. Shaking it some more.)

Folks, if I hadn't read the story myself, I'm not sure I would have believed such stupidity.

But, alas, these Rutgers fans aren't alone. Since the story became such big news, Mark Dilonno, the Star-Ledger columnist who wrote the original piece, wrote two follow up stories, linked here and here. Read his articles then read the comments left by readers. It's unreal some of the things said by Rutgers fans justifying what happened/happens and personally attacking Dilonno for bringing attention to it. Simply stunning.

If the Rutgers fans expressing the above views and those following Mr. Dilonno's articles are so clueless as to think what happened versus Navy (and apparently happens all the time at Rutgers games from the sound of it) is okay, sad to say, a tragic "accident" is probably not too far off.

Then again, what's the big deal. They're just drunk college kids under the influence of mob mentality. You got a problem with that?

You guys don't have fire ants up north. If you take a shovel of fire ants from one mound and drop them on another mound, a big ass riot/war breaks out with death and carnage. (if fact this is an organic way to control fire ants if you can get enough from each mound to take out the other's queen). This begs the question - what happens if Rutgers went to Columbus for a game?Yost - opportunity is knocking!

They really don't get it, do they? The most embarrassed I've ever been of my alma mater was the rechristening of Bryant-Denny Stadium on a beautiful late summer evening in 1998. I was a sr. at Alabama, and Shawn Alexander was the bomb, we were ranked in the teens and welcoming the high-flying BYU Cougars. The Rammer Jammer is one thing, but prior to kick off, the frat boys started a chant which carried through the student section, "FUCK THE MORMONS." I was mortified...it was bush, classless, tacky and entirely unworthy of a decent fan base.

In 2003, Notre Dame came to Michigan and got ass-raped 38-0. I remember how afterwards people were writing letters to the Daily saying that Michigan fans were so obnoxious and constantly chanting "fuck the Irish," which we were. But is it so bad?

Thankfully, we have since improved, and App State fans and Oregon fans wrote to the Daily saying how well they were treated, which really makes me proud.

I'll admit, I swear at games. A lot. If I see children nearby, I clean my mouth up. And I always make sure that I am polite to opposing fans and even that others are being polite as well. But is it wrong to swear? I mean, is it wrong to chant "fuck the fuckeyes" but do nothing beyond that (i.e. start fights, throw things at Buckeyes)?

Also, instead of chanting "bullshit!" when there is a bad call, I chant "Sunbelt!" but that's just because I think it's funny.

But when an opposing team consists of men who can't go straight to the NFL because they have to go serve their country, I think that they deserve extra respect. No booing, only applauding. I know some might say that it's part of the game, but no matter what your customary chants are, I think you should be extra respectful to fellow college students who are serving your country.

Yost, you guys should do a follow-up piece, as whetstonebuck alluded to, to show the "classyness" of the Rutgers program extends to the coaching staff as well. (i.e. padding stats). Ray Rice For Heisman. I mean his stats speak for themselves. Don't they?

First of all, who cares that it’s against a service academy? You’re doing everyone a disservice, and you’re actually disrespecting Navy, to treat it, or the other service academies, any differently than you’d treat any other team.

And, from the same site, a much better reason to be angry at Rutgers:

Greg Schiano padded Ray Rice's stats late in a win over Navy on Sept. 7. But after being criticized for a bush-league move, the Rutgers head coach only seemed even more determined to rub it in the face of an opponent.Saturday against tiny Norfolk State, Schiano called a bevy of timeouts in short succession while his team held a 45-0 lead at the end of the second quarter. NSU coach Pete Adrian had a right to be upset, and the fact that the controversy was the lead item in the Associated Press' (usually) bland game report shows you how much this story matters. It overshadowed anything and everything that Rutgers might have achieved in this game.

This to Matt -- you'd be surprised, but more than just children and their parents would rather not hear someone swearing at the top of his lungs all game long...if you're a Michigan grad you should be able to come up with something more creative than the usual f-bomb (i.e. Sunbelt) and if you're not -- please go somewhere else and swear your head off.

I'd like to nominate Cheeseburger Charlie Weis and ND for being bigger douchebags than RU.

We all know that ND's Demetrius Jones didn't show for the bus to A2 last weekend. He left ND for his home and Northern Illinois.

Apparently Jones is miffed that Weis lied to him in the recruiting process. Big surprise, recruiting is a cut throat business where coaches often do anything to get top classes (see Ron Zook '07). In turn Jones left the team on his own.

Now, that's not the issue. And under NCAA rules Jones has to sit out this year. No problem happens all the time. The event of douchebaggery is the ass clowns that run ND's football program will NOT release Jones from his scholarship. Nope... the kid doesn't go to school there but ND won't end the relationship and wants to spite him.

Since Jones is under scholarship still to ND, NIU cannot offer him one. So Jones has to sit out the year and pay for his tuition. What a bunch of horseshit by ND on this one!

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